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For all his sleepy looks, he did not miss the significance of the two places set at the high table. He gestured toward the table set just below Alinor's and said to Owain and Geoffrey, "Sit and eat. I will serve myself and Lady Alinor this day. We have no time for elegance. But mind your manners with Lady Joanna. I will have my eye upon you. And do you both mind that Master Adam comports himself like a gentleman." Then he put his hand out and Alinor laid her fingers formally on his wrist. "It is not good, I suppose," he said softly. |
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"Oh, well." Suddenly he laughed and shrugged. "Do you want my bad news first, or should we consider Salisbury's before we come to the reavers?" |
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He pulled the bench out so that Alinor could go around without lifting or catching her skirts, pushed it in behind her, and stepped over it to seat himself. The gesture was so practiced, so automatic, and Ian's mind was so plainly elsewhere that Alinor was stung by jealousy. A very polished courtier indeed, this second husband. Simon had been, too, of course, but except for one incidentwhich Alinor knew had existed only in her own imaginationshe had never doubted for a moment that Simon loved only her. Thoroughly ashamed of the trend of her thoughts, considering the danger into which Ian was putting himself just to protect her, Alinor wrenched her mind to what he had said. |
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"The felons are not hidden on my land then?" |
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"No, nor on Rowland land either." |
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"That means they must lie in the Forest of Bere or in the church lands south of Bishop's Waltham. You are well-acquainted with the Bishop of Winchester. Would he not give you leave to pursue them onto his lands?" |
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Again Ian was surprised. His general knowledge and acceptance of women as beautiful, helpless idiots, useful only for the bearing of sons, was in constant con- |
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